NOVEL NEXT Chapter 44: Ability Failure
As the curtain slowly pulled back, the audience's eyes regrouped on the stage. But to their surprise, the stage was empty. There was nothing, and it was even cleaner than anything.
If the actors left on their own, what about the props? From the curtain down, to open again, before and after no more than 10 seconds, those actors and actresses had moved so quickly?
The next performance does not need props, just about the King's fate in the end? Did he die?
A series of questions appeared in people's minds. If the play is involved in the video broadcast, I believe the whole stage will be flooded by the screen full of question marks. Yang Xue raised her body slightly and searched for Zhang Jue.
"Blah, blah, blah." The audience muttered
The sound of footsteps can be heard. A man stepped out from the shadows on the left side of the stage. The audience's eyes were all drawn to him.
"Look, who is that?"
"Holy shit, what the hell is that!"
The light gradually shone on that figure. That person was not dressed in normal performance clothes. His whole body was wrapped in bandages as if he was a mummy. Most importantly, he had a collar tied around his neck, and several chains extended from the collar and were tied to his hands and feet, just like a death row prisoner.
Yang Xue's pupils dilated slightly. Lei Shan, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes. All the MTF members present disguised as staff members entered a level of alert, ready to strike at any time because they knew that the real Hanged King had appeared.
Yang Xue and Lei Shan saw the real face of the Hanged King for the first time. At this moment, the head of the MTF team came to Lei Shan's side and asked him if they should evacuate the audience. Although they had been prepared, most of the people at the scene were students, and no one could afford it if something went wrong.
As Leshan was about to speak, there was a commotion in the audience. It turned out that as they were talking, another person in the same dress appeared on the other side of the stage. Like the mummy just now, he took one step and came to the center of the stage.
The two were facing each other.
"Two Hanged Kings?"
The eyebrows of the MTF member beside Lei Shan were knitted together as if he couldn't understand the scene in front of him.
"No, it's not." Yang Xue shook her head, "The one coming up behind is Zhang Jue. Although I don't know where he got the clothes, but I recognize his walking posture. It must be him!"
The MTF team member said to Lei Shan, "Whether it's Advisor Zhang or not, you'll have to make a decision, Sir. I'm afraid something will happen if you let so many people be directly exposed to the influence of the Hanged King."
Lei Shan pinched his chin with his index finger and thumb, weighing the pros and cons. Although he'd said he'd let Zhang Jue have his way to take care of it, he still needed to keep the outcome within an acceptable range.
Now that the main part of the play was over, evacuating the students at this time would not cause many revolts.
Just as he was about to give the order, Yang Xue suddenly said, "Wait!" Lei Shan looked at her.
Yang Xue pointed at the Hanged King coming up behind him. Zhang Jue said, "Look at his left hand!"
Lei Shan fixed his eyes and looked at it. Only to see his bandaged hand, the index finger seemed to be constantly shaking. If it were an ordinary person, it might have been a subconscious movement. But it was different from Zhang Jue's case. Yang Xue knew him best, and at times like this. Any action he made could be meaningful.
He knew that everyone's eyes would be focused on him once he appeared, so the message he conveyed must be very important.
"What is it, what is it? What exactly does he want to say?" Yang Xue closed her eyes, her mind spinning rapidly, forcing her brain to think what Zhang Jue would do at this moment.
Suddenly, she opened her eyes and shouted in a low voice, "Morse code! It's a Morse code!"
After Yang Xue reminded him of this, Lei Shan remembered that this was the way he and Zhang Jue had communicated in the VIP room earlier. Zhang Jue knew very well that Lei Shan could directly decipher Morse code, so he had chosen to use this method to deliver a message to them exclusively in public.
Lei Shan stared at Zhang Jue's hand and noticed that he was tapping with great regularity. It seemed to be simply repeating a word.
.-- (W)
.-(A)
.. (I)
-T
WAIT.
WAIT!
Lei Shan whispered, "He told us to wait!"
Yang Xue clenched her fist hard, slightly excited in her heart. This was the first time she had kept up with Zhang Jue's train of thought.
Lei Shan, on the other hand, shook his head, "Advisor Zhang, he's still terribly confident."
The MTF member confirmed again, "My lord, should we -"
Lei Shan smiled: "Since Advisor Zhang told us to wait, we will wait. I would like to see what he has to deal with this King who had already died once."
The mummy who sent the morse code was Zhang Jue. As for where those actors who wanted to kill him had gone and why he had become the way he was, it had to be his ability.
During the last Site-14 Infiltration Incident, Zhang Jue went through a lot of trouble to stop the enemy's plot. He put himself at risk and had contact with many SCPs, with the benefit of gaining their abilities.
In addition to the "self-healing" ability he obtained from Shirley at the beginning, he currently possesses four other SCP abilities:
SCP-049 (Plague Doctor) 's ability: "Paralyze"
SCP-1013 (Cockatrice) 's ability: "Mind Freeze"
SCP-2006 (Scary Gorilla with a Helmet): "Shapeshifting"
and the ability of SCP-106 (The Old Man): "Pocket Dimension"
At the time of the infiltration, he did not develop all of them because of time constraints, and the last two abilities were slowly comprehended by him at home.
The ability of Shapeshifting is just like its literal meaning. You can change your form at will, but I do not know if it is not enough proficiency. Zhang Jue was currently only able to shapeshift into a human-shaped creature. His attempts to turn into a table, chairs, and benches all ended in failure.
The other is the ability of The Old Man, the Pocket Dimension.
He found himself possessing a private space about 100 meters long, wide and high at his own will. He could bring objects into the Pocket Dimension the moment he touched them. It's a bit like the ability to bring another earth's space, but it's slower and not as lethal.
Just now, he used this ability to transfer all the actors who were affected by the Hanged King to the inside of his Pocket Dimension. When the Hanged King appeared, he decisively used his shapeshifting ability, which caused the situation of two Hanged King to appear on the stage.
The Hanged King's entire persona emitted an eerie and terrifying aura. If the person standing opposite him was not Zhang Jue, but someone else. I'm afraid that he would have become mentally insane.
"Give it up." Zhang Jue said, "You're already dead."
"Revenge..." The Hanged King let out a deep low voice, "I want revenge..."
Zhang Jue took a step forward and boldly grabbed the Hanged King's arm as he unleashed the Plague Doctor's ability, trying to nullify the Hanged King's body.
However, the Hanged King's power was completely beyond his imagination. Even though he had just interrupted the actors' summoning ritual and the Hanged King was not in full form at this time, he was still no match for his opponent.
Instead of neutralizing the Hanged King, the contact between the two of them had caused him to suffer tremendous mental exhaustion. He had underestimated the Hanged King and overestimated himself.
Zhang Jue felt that the sky was spinning as if his body was not his own anymore. He felt like he was sitting on a small boat, sailing in the black sea. The world in front of him fragmented, then reconstructed, and so forth.
I don't know how long had passed.
Zhang Jue opened his eyes.
What he saw was not the audience on the stage but a towering castle. The bizarre architectural style was not at all like a human creation.
Zhang Jue realized that this was the Kingdom of Alagadda, the palace that belonged to the Hanged King. He had arrived where the Hanged King lived during his lifetime.